Today I have been...

thinking about how I'm going to make the bower structure. Maybe I've been a bit too excited by the sparkly details lately and should work out how I'm going to make the main part of the installation first....it will probably help. So far this morning I've been dipping bits of trees into plaster, later on I'm going to be dipping bits of trees into black wax. I've also been mulling over how I'm going to make this thing a stable enough structure to actually walk through. I think that rather than employ the services of an architect I'm just going to write a waiver 'enter my bower at your own risk'. Mind you, I think I might sit in it for the duration of the exhibition anyway so there won't be room for anyone else and if the whole thing falls down around my ears, no one will care anyway!

Bower birds spend a lot of effort decorating the outside of their bowers and I've decided that mine should follow the same trend. I was digging around in my archive (aka my cupboard full of old junk - methodically boxed and labelled of course) and found a bridesmaid's dress that I was forced to wear at age 10. I hated the bloody thing. Wondering why I still had it, I realised that I'd kept it all these years just for this moment - it's pink gingham (ugh) and it's going to be part of the pink and sparkly installation whether it likes it or not. I stuck it in the washing machine and now it's hanging up to dry. Anyway, I digress, finding this old dress again got me thinking about dressing up little girls like princesses and fairies ('cos of course we all wanted to be one of those didn't we? Sod off!) and why their mummies go weak at the knees when they see their fluffly little cherubs smiling up at them through their pink tiaras, and I tried to recall what dressing up clothes I used to have. I had a hard time coming up with anything (being more interested in climbing trees), but then I recalled a worrying moment in my past when my mother made me a costume for a fancy dress competition (which I think was for Brownies). She decided that she'd dress me up as Nell Gwyn, complete with an apron full of oranges. Now this might present a cute image in your mind so I'm not sure if it's just me, but doesn't it seem a bit weird to you too that your mother would want to dress you up as a well known (if well liked) prostitute?!